From November 29 through December 2, 2016, the Human Rights Academy of thePublic Defender held training for 22 employees of the Ministry of Corrections on the theme: “Human rights-based management of the penitentiary institutions”. The training was attended by the directors and deputy directors of the penitentiary institutions, as well as representatives of the Medical, Legal and Penitentiary Department and General Inspection of the Ministry of Corrections.

The training program was aimed at raising awareness of the participants of the ways of human rights-based management of the penitentiary institutions. The participants got acquainted with the prison regimes, safeguards against ill-treatment, complaints mechanism, risk assessment, dynamic security, disciplinary proceedings, and issues such as: prisoners' health; psychiatric patients in prison; deontology of employees; international obligations concerning prevention and prohibition of torture; Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and the National Preventive Mechanism; review of penal legislation; review of policy documents and other major issues.

The training was led by Vincent Theis, an international expert and a former member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), who had served as a director of the Luxembourg penitentiary facility for 39 years; Nika Kvaratskhelia, Head of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia; Tsira Chanturia, Regional Director of the Penal Reform International (PRI). After completing the course, the participants were awarded certificates.

The training was held within the framework of the project “Support to the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender” funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was the last out of the ten trainings that have been held this year. The aim of the trainings was to deepen knowledge, research and analytical skills of target groups in the field of legal and other aspects of human rights.